Bad Company

Bring in the ladies (part I)

Hi everyone, it’s been some time! I thought I could update everyone with the events of Season 2, Episode 12 which is currently “airing”. So strap on, because there’s some bad company comin’

Episode 12

In a diner, where Steve Dupeux has organized a meet-up between Tucker Boudreaux and Yolanda Olmos, a lawyer that could help him with his latest law-reated issues. Tucker being broke as usual, Olmos offers to defend him pro bono in exchange for his help, clearing her teenage daughter Kat Benton from charges of online piracy.

Kat has broken in the database of Stevens investment bank where here father works, just for fun, because she could. While she was in, some information was deleted, and partially restored from back-up. Interestingly, some files recording real estate deals were duplicated after the back-up, most likely replacing deleted files. Kat’s IP address had been traced, and she has been charges of data theft, but she swears she has nothing to do with it.

After a visit to the cybersecurty firm contracted by Stevens LLC, it turns out the culprit could another hacker, who would have taken advantage of Kat’s intrusion for doing his own dirty business and put the blame on her. The duplicated fies could be the result of some hasty programming.

On a hunch, Kat and Tucker ask Ron to put together a map of the properties in the duplicated files. Ron sets a Google Map that reveals an unsettling pattern: the properties all sit along the path of ancient waterways, some of them still existing, while others have been diverted. Moreover, two of them are close to Poverty Point and the reservoir in Grosse Tête where Tucker and Roland traced a “parasite” associated with Ti’Karenweh (cf. S02E07).

Kat’s skills are put to good use, as she traces all the real estate deals to L’Auberge a Native American owned casino operated by Aucaman “Black Snake” Malik, whose family has extensive ties with the Redbone movement (remember Maia Piran?) Further searches reveal further unsettling incidents, dating back several years, that could well be part of a ritual to open a portal to Ti’Karenweh.

Kat grows increasingly skeptical about manitous, celtic godessess, and other supernatural entities, that Tucker, Ron and Rolland keep referencing. Anticipating that they will definitely need more of Kat’s help, and that they must convince her first that they are not batshit crazy, they come up with a plan to convince her: get her to accompany Tucker in a spirit walk.

The MC contacts Grey Longhood, who raises some concerns about Tucker’s taking another spirit walk so shortly after the last one. Eventually, he runs Tucker and Kat go through the sweat lodge ritual. and the two find themselves in a middle of a swamp, in a pitch black night. Surprisingly, Tucker still has his gun, with 15 bullets, 5 of them silver-tipped.

Tucker and Kat find what looks like Tucker’s footprints, and they follow them until they run into one of Sengann‘s scouts. It turns out that Tucker was in pursuit of a monster who has harassed Sengann’s army after the victory against Vinog’s army (cf. S02E09-10. Tucker’s spirit has lingered there for a while, with a life of its own, explaining Longwood’s worries.

When in doubt, take a hostage. Or two.

Hi guys!

Episode 11 is over, an I’m going to give it a write-up for the episode guide some time soon, but before that, I have a back-log of a few episodes. Speaking of which, I can use some help with S02E08, because I did not take notes on that one. So I’ll probably update S02E09-10 before S02E08…

That being said, given the overall chaos during the escape from Iberia Medical center, and the early departure of team Ian-Buck, a brief summary of the episode, when everyone’s memories are still fresh, will sure be useful. So let’s rock’n’roll.

Timeline

3:03 pm: Buck, Tucker and General Lee overpower one hospital guard and close the door on the other.

3:05 to 3:35 pmRoland calls Gina, and informs the group that she is sending Cry Baby and Ray with a van, but that a diversion will be needed, so that they can access the morgue through the parking garage. Ian collects some chemical to build a bomb, but is convinced not to try to breach the morgue wall, since an explosion would immediately get the Fed’s attention. Tucker begins the diversion, using the guard’s radio to order a pizza, some beer, and a box of Vicodin.

3:35 to 3:50 pm: Cry Baby call in from outside of the hospital, and Tucker and Roland begin the next step of the diversion. Using the guard hostage as a human shield, they get past two cops in the morgue lobby, and take the elevator to the first floor. There Roland takes the hostage-taking strategy to the next level, and Tucker blows a few fire extinguishers for good measure. All the cop cars converge to the main entrance, leaving Cry Baby and Ray free to access the morgue.

3:50 to 4:00 pm: Cry Baby pretends to have taken Ray as hostage, and with the help of Buck and Ian, alerted by the noise, get rid of the two cops in the morgue lobby. A third cop, who had been hiding in the display room, shoots Buck, but only grazes him. Buck shoots back instinctively, but the cop is saved by his vest. Cry Baby knocks the cop out with Ray’s gun before Buck could reload and finish him. Then Buck knocks out the two other cops, and hogties them with their handcuffs. Ian smokes and repeats to everyone who cares to listen that he will not build a bomb, or blow up anything, even if they ask.

4:00 to 4:10 pm: Roland decides to stay on the first floor to buy the others some time, and sends Tucker back to the morgue with the hostage guard, where he re-unites with Buck, Ian, Cry Baby and Ray. The guard is knocked out, and locked into a morgue body storage, and Cry Baby carries the two cops as hostages. On their way to the van, Tucker shoots a police car, and two more cops, wounding one of them severely by busting his knee cap. Buck and Ian head to the M.C. in the van with the cops, while Tucker, Ray and Cry Baby stay behind, to organize Roland’s escape.

4:10 to 5:00 pm: Tucker, who has made sure that no sniper could get a shot at Roland on the roof of the hospital, convinces him to get there with a bunch of hostages. With the help of Gina (on the phone) Tucker and Cry Baby set up a secure communication channel via an instant-messaging app with Roland, and have [[Helicopter or duster plane? | a heated argument]] about the best escape contraption: helicopter, or duster plane. Tucker buys some time with the hospital negotiator, asking for a helicopter to land on the roof, while Gina gets an open-cockpit duster plane with a rope ladder for Roland.

5:00 to 5:10 pm: While the duster plane is making its approach, Tucker and Cry Baby diverts the attention of the negotiator and the cops, by re-iterating the demand for a pizza, with “delta shrimps and all-american crayfish”, a can of beer “but not the liberal micro-brewery shit, and nothing from California”, etc. The plane flies over the roof, and Roland makes a clean escape. Ray hot-wires a car in a nearby parking lot, while Tucker and Cry Baby empty a bottle of bourbon and a jar of moonshine.

5:30 pm: Tucker, Ray and Cry Baby arrive at the M.C., and take some heat from Gina. Cry Baby, wasted, can’t stand it, breaks down, and cries, while Tucker falls unconscious trying to brew coffee, and begins snoring behind the bar. Roland arrives at the M.C. a short time later.

Aftermath

Everyone: 1 point for being there; 3 points for completing the mission without killing anybody.

Ian: 1 more point for sticking to his gun and not building a bomb or blowing anything up in reprisal for not having been allowed to blow a hole in the morgue wall.

Everything is simpler at gunpoint

[Buck] “There’s a risk of complication with the patient. That’s because of a trombo-veinous embolism. And the fluidity of… Fuck that! [Drawing a gun and a sawed-off shotgun from under his doctor blouse.] Gimme a piece of that man’s stomach! Like, a gastric sample!”

Hi guys. I thought I would document the highlights of last game before we forget too much :D It’s no full account, but I volunteer to do that later (like, an article for the Daily Iberian). But it will be useful if some back-up has to come to the rescue.

Also, I put the time-stamps more or less as I remember them, so feel free to edit the chronology.

Some time before I pm: Roland, Buck, and Ian arrive at Iberia Medical Center. Roland is driving, while Buck rehearses his speech.

Around 1 pm: Tucker, dressed as a clown, arrives in Jeb Boudreaux’s Dodge Ram, with General Lee and a crow. Buck walks half-way in to the main desk, goes back out, then in again, and registers as the replacement for Chrissy Lalonde, MD.

Soon after: Tucker walks in, with General Lee and the crow, posing as Bozo the Clown, privately-hired for “the kids with cancer”. The desk employee sends him to Pediatrics. On the way, Tucker disposes of his clown outfit, steals a janitor coverall, and fits General Lee and the crow (after having duct-taped its beak) in a garbage push cart.

1:10 pm: Buck meets Son V. Nguyen, MD, in the gastroenterology service, on the second floor. Nguyen suggests a change of clothes. Buck heads to the fifth floor (Pathology) and Lalonde’s office.

1:40 pm: Tucker, still pushing his garbage bin, recons the basement. He spots one guard at the elevator, but the two other service elevators (including one accessing the parking lot) are not guarded.

1:43 pm: Tucker walks in the morgue, knocks cold the employee on duty, and sets up shop. General Lee gets some beef jerky.

Around 2 pm: Roland and Ian head to the morgue, through one of the unguarded elevators. Buck waits in the lobby of General Surgery (first floor), where he notices armed guards searching the premises. One of them mentions “Jeb Boudreaux” in his radio.

2:30 pm: After having waited for the procedure to be well on his way, Buck barges in the operation room, where surgeon Thomas Borland is operating. Dr Nguyen is there, too. Under the accumulated stress, Buck reverts to the traditional outlaw ways, and gets a gastric sample at gun point.

2:40: Buck arrives at the morgue, and informs the others that they have until the end of the surgical procedure to perform the ritual. Roland draws Ian’s blood for the ritual, but gets out of control with the crow, and is about to kill it, while they need it alive. Things get worse when Buck, against Tucker’s orders, holds Roland at gunpoint. With no other option, Tucker headbutts Roland, and takes over the spell.

2:50: Tucker, after having drawn blood from the crow’s heart without killing it, gently crushes its skull, and begins to cook the mixture of blood, bird brain, and human stomach in a pan, over a fire made with the crow’s cage, on an autopsy table.

2:56 pm: Buck and Tucker nearly freak out when they realize that an ingredient for the spell (a birch rod) is missing. In a timely fashion, Buck remembers that he has concealed it in his pant’s leg, but had forgotten with the accumulated stress.

2:57 pm: Tucker undertakes the next step of the spell which involves birching the victim of the curse 7 times, while reciting verses. Ian, who has not been warned, defends himself.

2:58 pm: Tucker, although almost stone-cold k.o.-ed by *Ian*’s only connecting blow, completes the ritual.

3:00 pm: Ian, who is quickly recovering physically, but is mentally freaked out, storms the morgue with *Buck*’s help, to find chemicals that he could use to blow something up. Tucker suggests Jeb’s truck. Roland wakes up. Somewhere in Surgery, the alarm is given.

3:02 pm: Two armed guards arrive at the morgue. Tucker, General Lee and Buck jumps them, getting the drop on them, but one is just faster than Buck…

Carry on my wayward sons...

Where we are

Season 2 is on a short hiatus, after the last “Sweatlodge Special” (“A bow, a few arrows, some mead and a ghillie suit”, S02E09-10), where Tucker Boudreaux traveled through the Spirit World, in a land far away, a long time ago.

There, he found what the M.C. needed to deal with the aftermath of the mid-season finale (“All According to Plan”, S02E08), in particular Ian turning into a gargoyle.

It is still possible that Roland tun into a fiend, but other than that, everything’s fine. Trust me.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.